Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free • Hacker News Board

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#531

Post by senordevnyc » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

llbeansandrice wrote: post #385

rootusrootus wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or by a train to do the long miles and then other modes of transit once you're closer Of your many points in various posts, this is maybe the only point I'm really on board with. Amtrak already supports this, even. My car can drive me to the train and then the train can do the long haul, and at the other end my car will drive me off the train and to the destination. Still need waaaay more rail routes than we have n…

This isn’t strictly directed at you, but I’m saddened that HN is immediately ready to dream big when it comes to solving hard problems and making the world a better place in spaces like AI, crypto, and technology in general. But suddenly shuts down over things as simple as trains, buses, and bike lanes. There’s plenty of examples of guerrilla urbanism that I think align closely to the hacker ethos. Even more these pr…

I live in Manhattan, and don't own a car, so I get where you're coming from. The reality here is that America doesn't like trains and isn't going to build trains in any kind of a timeframe that's helpful to me. I'm about to move to Westchester, but I need to get to the Upper West Side every day. Yes, I can take the train from Westchester, but it goes into Grand Central, so then I need to take another train from there. And I'll have my kid with me.

So my options are:

1. Drive, walk, or bike with my kid to the train station in Westchester, ride to grand central, switch to subway, drop her off at school, then take the subway to my office. Total time about 90 mins.

or

2. Drive 35-45 mins.

I'll be driving.

There's talk of having one of the train lines go into Penn instead of Grand Central, with stops on the Upper West Side! But that'll be a decade or more, if it ever happens, and it won't be relevant to me anymore at that point.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#532

Post by bluGill » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

robocat wrote: post #404

llbeansandrice wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be an absolute energy and efficiency nightmare. I hope to god this never ever happens. > No sharing space with people on public transit. If people really want their own private suites they should be paying thru the nose and ears for it. Cars are a worse version of this and the car-centric lifestyle is heavily subsidized by everything from taxes to people's lives (air pollution from ICEs yes, but tire pollu…

> If your car isn't packed to capacity on every single trip, it is less efficient and worse than public transit. Cost is a great proxy for costs versus benefits. People choose cars because they are efficient for them. In theory public transit is efficient. In practice, only if you live in a very high density area, or you value your time at $0.

There are a few low density places around the world where public transit is efficient for the average person.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#533

Post by bluGill » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

ulfw wrote: post #431

echelon wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States is freaking huge. By the time modern transportation arrived, people were already living all over the country in pockets every which where. We opted for cars and planes to cover the vast distances. And as it turns out, we have some of the best in the world of both of these - and in vast quantities. We do have dense pockets. NYC, in particular, has a nice metro (it just needs to be cleaner and more mo…

> We opted for cars and planes to cover the vast distances. And as it turns out, we have some of the best in the world of both of these You actually believe that?!

It is true. The US has great car infrastructure. The US has a lot of airplanes. For longer distances both work very well.

We have terrible transit though, and there are many short trips where transit should work better than it doesn't work at all. However the subject here is vast distances and the US has those and does well.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#534

Post by eldaisfish » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #506

eldaisfish wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cars are barely efficient in terms of time. In cost terms, cars are incredibly expensive once you add in infrastructure costs, insurance, fuel, the cost of land use, etc. Public transit is efficient even outside areas of high density - see suburban Europe or India. Why are so many people here utterly car-brained?

Have you ever actually been to Europe? Public transit is pretty good in first-tier cities like Vienna / Stockholm / London where tourists spend most of their time. But out in the smaller cities and rural areas where regular people live there's very little public transit except for slow and inconvenient buses. So everyone drives. Or if they're too poor to afford a car then they just don't go anywhere.

are you familiar with population distributions and the fact that more of the word lives in urban areas than rural?

>So everyone drives

Citation needed, because this is obviously false.

>Or if they're too poor to afford a car then they just don't go anywhere

What a horrible thing to say.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#535

Post by uberman » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

mike-cardwell wrote: post #464

uberman wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool and all, but up until companies started putting this stuff in cars they cost $30k. Now the average car is 50k. The average car is now more expensive than my BMW 3 series with the premium package from a few years back. I don't want to pay for your fantasy of going to sleep in your car and waking up someplace new. I dont want to pay for the ability of my car to self park or be summoned to me. Most new features of…

> I don't want to pay for your fantasy of going to sleep in your car and waking up someplace new So vote with your wallet. And take a bus.

You're suggesting that the only alternative to autonomous self-driving cars is public transit?

By the way, I do vote with my wallet. I won't buy a car that has these features. I won't buy a car that serves me ads. I won't buy a car that charges a subscription fee. However, this is becoming increasingly challenging. Most luxury vehicle manufacturers want to pad their bottom lines by charging a premium or worse a subscription for things I (and I suspect many people) don't want.

These premium features ultimately trickle down so every new car must have a rear-view camera and many have LED lighting. Examples of two premium features that now everyone must pay for. My eldest daughter failed her driving test because she used the rear view camera when parallel parking. Yes these cameras are mandated but you fail if you use them. The tail light on an F-150 can cost upwards of $3,000 to replace. A tail light!

My first car, a jeep, came with a bikini top, no doors. the windshield actually folded down without a special tool, and I used a kerosene heater in between the seats when it was cold. Now wranglers come with touch screens, heated steering wheels and cruise control. Apparently they are difficult to find with a manual transmission. I loved mine back in the day but as you say I'll vote with my wallet and will not buy from Stellantis.

I'll happily get my kids a Slate. Of course your mileage may vary and if you want to pay for these premiums then power to you. I just don't want to subsidize your choice.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#536

Post by jklinger410 » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #18

Autonomy subscriptions are how things are going to go, I called this a long time ago. It makes too much sense in terms of continuous development and operations/support to not have a subscription -- and subscriptions will likely double as insurance at some point in the future (once the car is driving itself 100% of the time, and liability is always with the self driving stack anyway). Of course, people won't like this…

And therefore opens up other features to subscription models as well. We've already seen it in some cars, tested in others, etc.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#537

Post by jklinger410 » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:26 PM UTC

hogehoge51 wrote: post #300

iambateman wrote: post #278

it seems like car-makers themselves feel burdened to make their own self-driving tech, as opposed to outsourcing the software to a third party. Dell and HP don’t make operating systems…it seems like having a handful of companies focused on getting the self-driving part right without the need to also specialize in manufacturing would be beneficial. My first inclination was to be bullish on Rivian, and there’s no quest…

Most traditional OEMs in the automotive industry are integrators. They write a specification, and a Tier 1 supplier provides a black box matching that spec. (Tier 1 in turn provides a spec to its suppliers and integrates their parts) This has several consequences - Tier 1 suppliers are waiting on input/approval from OEM before proceeding with projects - Tier 1 suppliers don't necessarily have the capital to do work "…

Have you ever heard of comma.ai? What do you think about it?

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#538

Post by bluGill » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

dv_dt wrote: post #457

bryanlarsen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it seems inevitable that autonomy and insurance are going to be bundled. 1. Courts are finding Tesla partially liable for collisions, so they've already got some of the downsides of insurance (aka the payout) without the upside (the premium). 2. Waymo data shows a significant injury reduction rate. If it's true and not manipulated data, it's natural for the car companies to want to capture some of this upside…

Maybe, but it might just push many would-be car owners to just use a service and forego buying a car altogether. What's the point of paying the capital expense, and a subscription expense for a car vs just calling up a Waymo. The traditional car makers should really be wary as they've historically been terrible at service offerings.

If you rarely drive using a service might be worth it. However if you drive more often it will be worth having your own car because it is ready when you want to go. I have a second car that I rarely use - but if I got rid of it a uber is 15 minutes away when I want to go, and the local rental car place is always sold out if I didn't reserve a week in advance.

Even if I'm using a service, someone needs to make the cars the service uses - the car manufactures are not going anywhere, they just get a different customer.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#539

Post by nradov » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:29 PM UTC

eldaisfish wrote: post #534

nradov wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever actually been to Europe? Public transit is pretty good in first-tier cities like Vienna / Stockholm / London where tourists spend most of their time. But out in the smaller cities and rural areas where regular people live there's very little public transit except for slow and inconvenient buses. So everyone drives. Or if they're too poor to afford a car then they just don't go anywhere.

are you familiar with population distributions and the fact that more of the word lives in urban areas than rural? >So everyone drives Citation needed, because this is obviously false. >Or if they're too poor to afford a car then they just don't go anywhere What a horrible thing to say.

Horrible how? I'm telling you that's the reality, not that it's a good thing. Unlike you I've actually been to those places and talked to the locals.

Re: Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

#540

Post by bluGill » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

rangestransform wrote: post #292

whimsicalism wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another alternative would be that you get what you get at purchase time, and you have to buy a new car to get the newest update. Doubt that is a politically tenable model. "You're telling me my son Bobby died in a crash that could have been prevented with finished software but they only roll it out to people who have the money for a new car despite no technical limitation?" -- yeah, good luck

Think about how many hoopties are already on the road with broken lights, bad alignment, bald tires, no ABS/ESP/TC, dangerous suspension geometry like semi trailing arms, no oil changes, etc. Why don’t we start handwringing about poor vehicle maintenance?

We do in some places. Where I live (Iowa) we don't - but most people take better care of their car than that so it is pointless. As a kid I remember parts of MN requiring inspection and a few years latter dropping it when they realized nearly every car was passing so there was no point (this was emissions only not safety). In Texas there are regular inspections - but if you go to border towns you see a lot of those poorly maintained cars on the road (despite the inspection) and so people see more need for them and they keep them.